


Marked Skin, Branded Souls

by RougueShadowWolf



Series: 15 Minutes [241]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Danny Mahealani & Jackson Whittemore Friendship, Hurt Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Married Danny Mahealani/Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 06:00:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20773700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RougueShadowWolf/pseuds/RougueShadowWolf
Summary: When Jackson found himself to be one of the very few people blessed with a soulmate, he was left feeling anything but excited or happy. He hid the name that blemished his skin for many years, hoping and praying that his secret would never come out, but eventually his secret came to be known in the worst possible way.





	Marked Skin, Branded Souls

**Author's Note:**

> Stumbled into this pit of vipers did yah, well worry not, they are all hiss and no bite. Just like my stories.
> 
> So, here’s the thing my loveliest of lovelies, yes, even you grim hearted ones and those still hiding themselves, all of you are loveliest of lovelies, I the fool of fools made this mistake at the start of August that has come back to bite me in my rump. You see, in the early days of August, there was a 15Minute story round held but I failed to upload them, and if ItAlmostWorked! hadn’t noticed my mistake then we wouldn’t be here. 
> 
> Here comes the usual explanation of what this series is, or rather the idea behind it, so if you are familiar with all of it, do leap like a frog over to the section of SLIGHT CHANGE, and you who are not familiar with this series please stay and hear me out. This series is a payment for my friends (six braver souls than I) and each individual gives me these little requests for their story, and each story is written within the timespan of 15Minutes, once the time is up so is my time to write the story. Due to the lack of time, the length of stories change, and so does the quality, here you will find plenty of mistakes and bad storytelling, so if you can’t handle that then save yourself now for here you shall be tortured and I wish you no such fate. However, if you can handle bad grammar, typos aplenty, and chaotic writing with grace, then I greet you with open arms and guide you towards the area marked SLIGHT CHANGE.
> 
> SLIGHT CHANGE, hello bravest of souls, there’s a change brought forth in the shape of themes, a guideline of sorts that is to be followed and this time it is in the shape of Broken, but worry not, UnfriendlyRubyDragonfly still has the power to plant her wishes inside my brain such as her wish for a story where Stiles and Danny are together but Jackson is Stiles’ soulmate (she shrieked excitedly “give me the drama”, her allergy meds make her a hoot), and that’s all my cheerful friend gave me to work with.

Thinking back to that day when his soulmate mark appeared on his skin, Jackson could recall the whole experience in vibrant details. The feeling of his heart swelling with pride and excitement was a constant ghostly reminder of the day he turned seventeen and his whole world turned upside down, the immense joy he’d felt turned into a bitter memory. No matter the day or how many years passed, Jackson would always remember the nervous energy that struck him when he’d noticed the change on his skin on the morning of seventeenth-birthday, all the remnants of sleep had vanished immediately when he realized the blemish on his skin was changing, turning into the name of his soulmate.

He’d begged and pleaded for the letters to become clearer, for the name to appear faster so that he could begin to search for his soulmate, starting out with Facebook since surely that would be the easiest way to find his soulmate, but once enough letters all dark and bold became clear his heart had dropped and his joy was crushed.

There had been no need for Facebook or Twitter, no need to search at all as the name on his skin belonged to someone he’d known since kindergarten, and at the sight of the painfully familiar name that was permanently stuck to his skin, Jackson had cried out in pure horror and genuine distress. He’d spent days, years, pleading for the name to vanish but as all soulmate marks it was destined to stay upon his skin until the day his soulmate died; and even after the death of ones soulmate the faded name would remain like some faded scar, for a soulmate was forever and beyond life or death.

Unable to accept for many years who his soulmate was drove him to hide the name on his skin like some shameful secret. There was no denying that he’d felt ashamed over his soulmate and the fact that the universe felt he didn’t deserve someone better than the person whose name sat upon his skin, having Stiles Stilinski as his soulmate felt like the worst punishment in the world and blatant show of how imperfect Jackson truly was.

Even now, years later, sitting silently in the miserable room an uneasy nurse had showed him too, he continues struggles not to hide the fading name on his skin, and he feels fucking ashamed of himself for being so weak for being unable to stay away.

Glancing over towards Danny who’d yelled at him to leave, but the mark on his skin made it impossible for even Stiles’ partner and chief to kick him out of the waiting room, the soulmate mark held a great deal of power and now Jackson was willing to use it.

Sitting there across the room from Danny, Jackson recalls the how Danny had been the first person to imply back in the day that he was possibly hiding a Soul mark, and that had been the first-time he’d lied to Danny and from that day on he’d continued to lie to his best friend.

Watching as Stiles’ partner hands Danny another terrible cup of coffee, Jackson recalls with surprising bitterness the first-time Danny had jokingly declared that guys like Jackson never get a soulmate, finishing the hurtful joke with a line about Jackson just being one those people who just get all the girls. He can even recall the laughter that left Stiles, the sound still loud and cruel in his ears; there had been a spiteful part of him that had wanted to rip off the bandage that covered his mark that day, and show it off to everyone, and even rub the damn thing in Stiles’ stupid face, but he hadn’t, instead he changed swiftly into his Lacrosse gear while planning his revenge on not only Stilinski but Danny too.

Jackson glares down at the fading mark, which now stood out more than ever due to the dark shades of the tattoo he’d gotten to camouflage the name of his soulmate, a tattoo he’d gotten after nearly six-months of trying to hide the name on his skin. Jackson had never liked tattoos, never wanted one, but when he caught Stiles looking at his arm in that way of his that told everyone Stiles’ was thinking, he was driven to the extremes. Jackson had been lucky to find a tattoo artist who didn’t care about your age as long as you had enough money, and who with a bit extra cash didn’t give a damn about the fact he was going to work to hide a Soul mark. Jackson had found it strange that the tattoo artist, who wore his own Soul mark proudly on his own forearm, would agree to cover his Soul mark, then again, money corrupts and all that.

Of course, the patch of inked skin had raised plenty of eyebrows back in his high school days, which was reasonable since everyone knew how against tattoos Jackson had been, calling people with tattoos trashy, a fact that Stiles had been swift to point out before questioning him if he was on drugs or having some teen-life-crisis; Stiles had even handed him a piece of paper with a phone number, a number Jackson never called since he didn’t need to talk to someone about his life.

Glancing down at the fading name, the last two letters of Stilinski completely gone, Jackson hears a voice from the past ask him a question long ago.

_`Ever wished you had a soulmate? ´_ Lydia’s question had startled him during their last night together, both knowing after months of trying to be something neither one of them were that it was time to stop, both fearing that the longer they attempted to be something they simple weren’t able to become the more vicious and hurtful they would be towards one another.

Certainly, Jackson had known the moment he and Lydia became a thing, that he’d only bring out the worst in Lydia, and back then before they became venomous towards one another and everyone around them he hadn’t even cared to try and be a better person for her; and Lydia, well, she never really made him feel genuinely happy to be with her, the sex was good, but listening to her talk about boring shit gave him headaches and more often than not he felt irritated by her presence. Then again, he’d made her feel bored and annoyed, frustrated and so she took her unhappiness out on everyone around her.

_`Ever wished you had a soulmate? ´_ she’d asked him, and he can even now feel her watchful eyes on his younger-self.

_`No. ´_ had been his swift and sharp reply while getting out of bed, completely ready and willing to put his relationship with Lydia behind him for good.

`Whatever. ´ she’d mumbled before sitting-up, most likely knowing he’d been lying to her, but by then he’d become an expert in denying not only the mark hidden on his skin but also the fact that he’d wished for a soulmate since the day he’d learned about people blessed with having a soulmate.

His heart stops momentarily as the door to the room opens, but the sight of yet another man in uniform entering the room and walking over to Danny has his heart going back to the uneasy beat. He ignores the whispered voices from across the room, focusing instead on watching the fading name on his forearm, wishing for the letters on his arms to stop fading.

Jackson doesn’t know what he’ll do, how he’ll handle it if the name disappears, or how he’ll break the news to Danny. Then again, he has no clue of what to do if Stiles’ name starts to reappear dark and strong, he feels as lost and uneasy that he wishes he could turn back the time and just do the right thing and tell Stiles that they were soulmates.

But you can’t turn back time, and so the first person to ever find-out that he had a soulmate would always be the striper with eyes that were too sharp for someone in his profession and possessing a mouth full of too many words.

`Your soulmate? ´ the guy with sharp features had asked, voice deep and dull, his eyes Jackson recalls had been dark-brown, but his lashes reminded him of Stiles’ eyelashes.

Perhaps it had been the alcohol talking, or just a moment of weakness, but Jackson had answered the question truthfully while pulling his arm away from the fingers tracing the name on his skin, `Yeah. It’s complicated. ´

`No shit dude. ´ the stripper had laughed, glancing over at Danny who was in the middle of a game called Know Your Stilinski, and at that moment Jackson had struggled to believe his best friend was going to marry Stiles Stilinski two days later.

Jackson breathes out the heavy breath stuck in his chest, running a shaky hand through his messy hair before glancing once more over at Danny who continued to fiddle anxiously with the ring Stiles’ had slipped on Danny’s finger a two-years and four-months ago.

He knows that he should’ve said something all those years ago when Danny started dating Stiles Stilinski, but instead of manning-up he’d insisted Danny checkout whether or not _he_ had a soulmate somewhere out there, just waiting for Danny and their happily ever after. Jackson had possibly wished harder for Danny to have a soulmate waiting for him than he’d wished for Stiles name to vanish off of his skin, but the soulmate register didn’t hold Danny’s name. There weren’t words to describe just how badly Jackson had wanted for Danny to have someone else, to love someone other than Stiles Stilinski, and to say that Jackson didn’t try and shove every gay or bi single friend of his at Danny would be an understatement; however many guys Jackson shoved at Danny, his best friend continued to date Stiles and when Stiles eventually asked Danny to marry him, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Jackson since Danny and Stiles had been together for five-years.

Jackson knows he could’ve said something, spilled the soulmate beans, when Danny announced proudly that Stiles had asked the big question, instead of telling Danny that Stiles was his soulmate he simply became rude and argumentative.

Even now as he sat there trying to remember his words of that day when Danny shared the details of Stiles’ rather cliché setting of his proposal of marriage, Jackson couldn’t for the life of him recall his exact words that spilled out of him, all he remembers is the bitterness he felt when Danny laughed a little bit mockingly at the sweet and hopeful scene Stiles had orchestrated, whatever he had said to Danny then wasn’t about soulmates but what it was had been enough to earn him weeks-worth of silent treatment from Danny. The black-eye Stiles gave him had admittedly been a surprise, as had the way Stiles had yelled at him to be a good friend and apologize to Danny or so help him God Stiles would castrate Jackson while he slept.

It had taken two weeks of grovelling for Danny to forgive him and Jackson knew it only happened because of _Stiles_, and the bitterness of that knowledge still tasted foul in Jackson’s mouth.

Jackson knows he had been given plenty of chances before the wedding to tell Danny about Stiles being his soulmate, or if he’d had enough courage gone straight-up to Stiles and let the cat out of the bag, but instead he stayed a weak coward and agreed to Danny’s best man, going as far as to hold a lovely speech written to him by his neighbour since Jackson continued to fail at writing a good speech that didn’t revolve around how wrong it was for Danny and Stiles to marry.

Sitting there now, waiting for the name on his skin to disappear or if there was mercy in the world grow dark and strong against his skin once more, Jackson recalls the words he’d whispered as he watched the newly married couple heading off to their honeymoon.

_`It could’ve been me. It should be me. ´ _Jackson couldn’t back then, or even now, pinpoint when he stopped seeing Stiles as a loser or annoying, but it had happened at some point and so watching his soulmate, a great man at heart and soul, marry someone else and heading off for a two week honeymoon in Hawaii had cut into his very soul.

Jackson could’ve kept his distance from Danny and Stiles, but there was a part of him that just couldn’t do it, and so early tonight he’d been at Danny’s and Stiles’ apartment, spending the evening with his friend. He’d listened dutifully to whatever complaints Danny might have about his husband, while biting his own tongue and sipping wine that tasted foul in his mouth.

Danny had been in the middle of asking for Jackson’ opinion on kids, or rather on the issue of having kids. Jackson hadn’t been all that surprised to learn that Stiles wanted a couple of kids, Danny however wasn’t all that interested in having children, confessing even that he may have not been all that truthful with Stiles back in the day about his dreams for the future.

Jackson feels the anger from that moment of realization that Danny had made Stiles think there could be a couple kids in the future bubble up once more, and he can’t stop the brief glare that he directs at Danny.

Whatever Jackson had been ready to say back in Stiles’ and Danny’s apartment had died when an unfamiliar and dreadful pain strikes his abdomen causing him to drop his glass of wine, even now there’s a pain there that throbs and pulsates unpleasantly.

Then another pain had struck him, right above his heart, the scream that left him wasn’t the only thing causing him to struggle when it came to breathing, he’s struck twice more with unimaginable pain before the world had tilted unpleasantly.

Danny had been at his side in minutes, plates and pizza crashing to the floor.

Even before Danny was at his side, frightened and confused, trying to figure out why Jackson was on the floor and on his knees, struggling to breathe through the pain. The haunting taste of blood in Jackson’s mouth hadn’t been his own, and that alone had made him feel like he was trapped in some horrible nightmare.

Jackson had barely heard Danny tell him that he was going to call an ambulance, but as soon as Danny grabs his phone it rings. The sound of the phone ringing causes Jackson’s heart to drop, because he knows, just knows what this phone call is all about and yet he starts to roll-up the sleeve of his shirt all the while mumbling out a plea to the universe not to take Stiles.

Although Jackson had thought Danny hadn’t heard him, the look Danny gives him even before he answers his phone, ready to apologize and hang-up on the person calling should’ve been enough for Jackson to shut his mouth, but the sight of Stiles’ name shrink ever so slightly sends him into a frenzied state.

Jackson can’t say what exactly he said as he turned his attention towards Danny who had turned a dreadful pale colour while holding his phone to his ear, but there’s something in Danny’s eyes that tells him that Danny knows now the secret he’s been keeping, and almost as soon as the phone call ends Danny’s there, grabbing him by the arm and yanking it towards his face, the action nearly dislocating Jackson’s shoulder.

`Stiles’ he’s your fucking soulmate! ´ Danny cried out in anger and horror, and all Jackson had been able to beg Danny not so much for forgiveness but rather, `Which hospital, Danny? Which hospital are they taking him? Danny, please, which hospital? ´

Although there is a part of him that understands why Danny had left the apartment without giving him an answer, there’s another part of him that was less understanding.

**Author's Note:**

> So, yeah only one of the soulmates gets the mark, because the universe has a sense of humour it marked Jackson with it. 
> 
> The reasons why Jackson doesn’t want Stiles in the beginning is because they don’t like each other, and deep-down Jackson is terrified that Stiles would reject him which would be fucking humiliating, but he’d never admit it and so instead leans to the idea that dating loser Stiles would ruin his reputation. He’s also convinced his adopted parents would be horrified with him not only being gay, bi or whatever but that his soulmate is someone like Stiles Stilinski. 
> 
> Later after he gets to know Stiles better, Stiles has started to date his best friend, and so Jackson stays quiet while believing that Stiles and Danny will break-up soon, and so he does nothing. Jackson wants Danny to be happy, even if he thinks it will only be for a little while, and Jackson being Stiles’ soulmate shouldn’t stop Danny experience the happiness Stiles sparks inside of Danny. Jackson believes, firmly, that Danny and Stiles will break-up and never get married. 
> 
> Jackson is forced to spend more time with Stiles because of Danny, and the more time he spends with Stiles, the more Jackson likes him. Jackson doesn’t tell Stiles about being soulmates, he doesn’t tell Danny either because he doesn’t want to hurt Danny, and he fears being rejected by Stiles who clearly loves Danny. Jackson doesn’t say anything about being Stiles’ soulmate, because Danny is clearly in love with Stiles, and Stiles clearly makes Danny happy, but it doesn’t stop him from being a bit of an ass.
> 
> Jackson fucked-up, and he knows it when Danny and Stiles get engaged, and the only thing that keeps him from losing his mind is the idea that Danny and Stiles will never workout because they aren’t soulmates.


End file.
